Kill List (7/10)

January 12th, 2012

A bewildering and ambitious mix of styles, Kill List weaves from kitchen-sink drama to hitman thriller and from black comedy to religious horror with effortless ease. Two friends, paid killers in need of a cash injection, accept a contract to wipe out some bad guys. ‘Sorry’, their employer says, slashing Jay's hand with a knife in order to quite literally seal their contract in blood,’ but this is absolutely necessary’. Jay and Gal have no idea what they’re up against.

Robert Rodriguez, you may remember, managed to get a small sum of money together to make El Mariachi, which was so successful that he easily got the required funds for Desperado, the movie that really launched him. Ben Wheatley, who both wrote and directed Kill List, used the same manoeuvre last year with the fabulous Down Terrace, a movie I raved about at the time. Kill List shows that the comedy-horror-thriller set in a Brighton terraced house was no fluke.

There are similarities between the two, obvious ones like some cast members re-appearing, but also in the writing constituents. Kill List, although not as funny as its predecessor, still has moments of tension-breaking comedy that come as welcome relief. Imagine, if you will, two men rolling around on the floor, fighting for their life’s worth, and one screams to the other ‘not in the face!’

The story. Domesticated husband and father Jay (Neil Maskell) is having a few too many barnies with wife Shel for his own good. Their arguments revolve around money, or more precisely the lack of it. Gal (Michael Smiley) has the answer. There’s a new contract out, just right for experienced killers like these two ex-Army boys. Meet the employer in a hotel, take the briefcase of money, kill a few bad guys, no worries.

The victims are studied, one by one. A priest is first on the list, and his presence (or, perhaps, His presence?) brings into focus things we’d noticed previously but not recognised. Religion, be it organised or occultish. Everything here seems to be tied in to religious belief of some sort. Wheatley begins his tale with insinuation and the faintest of jabs, but the deeper the pair get involved the more eerie the journey gets, and the more loopy Jay becomes.

Wheatley’s dark, dark film has style and panache aplenty, drawing from previous horrors such as The Wicker Man and Angel Heart in equal measure, but forcefully stamping his own persona upon matters. To discuss the plot would be its ruination, so I can only comment on the movie’s camerawork and acting, which are both solid enough without ever being spectacular, and its compilation/editing which is a little haphazard. The movie’s ending owes a great deal to Hot Fuzz (all that was needed was a muttered chorus of ‘crusty jugglers’) and didn’t quite live up to all the outstanding work that preceded it. However if, as reported, this film was produced with a budget of £500,000, then it represents outstanding business.

Wheatley’s got a big future ahead of him, no doubt about it, with two more movies in the pipeline, and I’m tremendously excited at the thought of them. In just two films, he has established himself as a one-of-a-kind director with a unique individuality that runs through them. More, please.